Friday, May 16, 2014

Generations Of Origami

So, at my Health and Wellness meeting this Thursday a girl in my marketing committee taught our little group how to make anorigami bird. It was interesting to watch everyone trying to learn it and once they got it help those that were having issues with the various folding. I asked her if I could take some of her paper because I wanted to do an experiment with my room mates. I then proceed to try out the idea of passing on information through generations. So, it all started with me learning from the girl at Health and Wellness, next I took what I had learned and tried to teach one of my room mates (Cayla). She then tried to teach Tori who excelled at making the bird and even decided to add some extra details to the

wings. What's interesting though is that my last room mate (Terry) really does not like doing anything artsy or crafty, and Tori isn't always the best teacher so Terry never really finished hers and gave up kind of early. It was interesting to see everyone trying to teacheach other based off of learning from other people. For the most part I think it went well until Terry decided that she didn't want to finish her bird and gave up early.(The various pictures shows our different cranes and the different "generations" that are teaching/learning from one another, and the last pictures shows all the cranes together).

I thought it was lots of fun and interesting to watch how everything turned out. So I decided to just do a very small generation teaching with origami frogs. The one on the left is the one I made from memory. (I haven't made them in years so it was interesting to see how I remembered the steps and also how I struggled with the steps). The following frogs are both Cayla and Tori, my two room mates who wanted to try and do more origami. For the most part these frogs turned out pretty well considering I barely remembered the steps and then they had to follow one another.
I decided to look into the history of origami because I really know almost nothing about it besides that it originated in Japan and that there is a tradition to make 1000 cranes to have a wish come true. So I did some research and this is what I found.

Origami started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside
of Japan in the mid-1900s. What is considered "traditional origami" has been practiced since the Edo era (1603–1867). It has since then evolved into a modern art
form. Although Japan is creditied as being the originators of origami there is evidence of an independent tradition of paper-folding in China, as well as in Germany, Italy and Spain among other places. Although the evidence is very limited because folded paper structures are rather delicate.

In China, traditional funerals include burning folded paper, most often representations of gold nuggets (yuanbao). It is not known when this practice started, but it seems to have become popular The paper folding has typically been of objects like dishes, hats or boats rather than animals or flowers.

during the Sung Dynasty (905–1125 CE).

The earliest evidence of paper-folding in Europe is a picture of a small paper boat in Tractatus de sphaera mundi from 1490. There is also evidence of a cut and folded paper box from 1440. It is probable that paper-folding in the west originated with the Moors much earlier, it is not known if it was independently discovered or knowledge of origami came along the silk route.

In Japan, the earliest unambiguous reference to a paper model is in a short poem by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 which describes paper butterflies in a dream. Origami butterflies were used during the celebration of Shinto weddings to represent the bride and groom, so paper-folding had already

become a significant aspect of Japanese ceremony by the Heian period (794–1185) of Japanese history, enough that the reference in this poem would be recognized. Samurai warriors would exchange gifts adorned with noshi, a sort of good luck token made of folded strips of paper.

There is a lot more that goes into origami such as techniques and tools but this time I decided to focus on more of the history of origami it self and possibility that is showed up in other countries as well. Somethings show up around the world multiple times in various areas because there is something important and significant about them.

If anyone is interested here is a video of how to make an origami crane. Try it out, teach others, and have fun!

P.S. I'm also currently working on two other projects, one is a group project that is going to focus on stop motion and will deal with the subject of history, visual culture, generations, and world making. I also am doing a personal project where I am learning about the history of the things that I take for granted as being purely "me". I think it will be interesting to find out what goes into making me who I am.